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The University of Kent, Canterbury, Kent, CT2 7NZ, T +44 (0)1227 764000
Drama and Theatre Studies
National ratings
Research Assessment Exercise 2008: ranked 12th nationally for research quality with 70% of our research rated "world-leading" or "internationally excellent".
7th in the Complete University Guide 2009 and 83% of students were satisfied with their course in the 2008 National Student Survey.
Taught programmes
Research programmes
Postgraduate Drama and Theatre Studies at Kent has a very strong reputation for research and supervision in contemporary performance processes, theory and craft, as well as in the area of European theatre. The wide-ranging interests of our international team of leading and emerging researchers (from the UK, Australia, Malta, Greece, Germany and other countries) also include research strengths in medieval and early modern drama, multimedia performance, and in the history of comedy and popular performance.
Our distinctive focus at Kent is on theatre as practice, whatever the topic, area, mode and methodology of research, and we encourage postgraduate students to make use of our close links and contacts with local, national, and international (especially European) theatre companies, venues, schools and artists, both for research and to encourage professional postgraduate development.
Our flagship area of ‘Practice as Research' has so far attracted a range of researchers and professionals, including the co-directors of Ridiculusmus, performance artist Kazuko Hohki, and many others working in areas from physical theatre to visual performance and cross-disciplinary projects.
European links
In 2007, we launched the European Theatre Research Network (ETRN) and, from 2009, have been running new taught postgraduate programmes in European Theatre and Theatre Dramaturgy as part of this newly established research centre.
The ETRN builds on our strong links with the Workcenter of Jerzy Grotowski and Thomas Richards and the Grotowski Institute in Poland, with various London venues and companies as well as European institutions such as Kaaitheater Brussels, Volksbühne Berlin, and the Moscow Art Theatre School. We have links with various European universities such as Berlin, Amsterdam and Moscow and we encourage applications for co-tutelle supervisions of postgraduate work with another European partner university, where students study and research at both universities.
Conferences and seminars
We have strong links with organisations such as the International Federation for Theatre Research (IFTR) and the Theatre and Performance Research Association (TaPRA), and encourage postgraduates to present work within national and international conferences. Also, we run regular research seminars, workshops, and performance-related events led by members of staff, students, and invited experts and practitioners.
Strong publishing Culture
Recent publications by our staff include books on the legacy of the Bauhaus theatre, Jerzy Grotowski, eighteenth-century actresses, variety theatre, applied performance, contemporary Flemish theatre, Ingemar Lindh, multimedia theatre, and Shakespeare. Staff also regularly contribute to international high-profile journals such as Contemporary Theatre Review, New Theatre Quarterly, Studies in Theatre and Performance, and Performance Research, amongst others. In 2011, the department hosts Professor Richard Schechner from NYU/Tisch School of Arts as Leverhulme Visiting Professor.
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